Image A: Advertisement by Intel Corporation.
The advertisement above comes from the Intel Corporation. Intel is an American multinational corporation and also a technology based company situated in Santa Clara, California, in SIlicon Valley. This company is the world’s largest and highest priced semiconductor chip manufacturer and inventor of the processors found in most personal computers (microprocessors). The target audience of this company consists of adults, mainly between the ages of 18-40 years. The target market needs to be at an age where they can afford technology and are technology savvy; focusing on high school students or business men or employers in office jobs.
This Intel advertisement appeals to specifically white business men by addressing the higher performative processor for business which the claim will “multiply computing performance and maximize the power of the employees”. This ad seeks to exploit the history of black men and just black men in general insinuating that the black men are always at the feet of the white man or below the white man in terms of the business industry. Thus implicit messages for this ad include putting black employees to better use for a successful white businessman undermining the fact that these black men are also human yet not regarded as such.
The language in this ad further promotes the ideas of slavery as it plays into messages such as race and stereotypes. A white manager standing over six black athletes who bow in accordance before him includes a powerful slave imagery. The words “maximize & employees” stand out in pushing the racial narrative of this ad. With the language of this ad, it retracts the targeted audience by narrowing down its preferred audience to white supremacists because of the message it conveys.
This Intel ad emphasizes the culture of racial stereotypes by depicting these black men as athletes thereby creating an analogy to this new advanced speed microprocessor. It discredits black men as simply human beings by comparing them to a tool or a machine. The portrayal of the men standing in a formation that is usually used when in a running competition, shows that when given orders they would comprehend and start running as though they are mules. This Intel ad becomes less effective as it uses a terrible analogy to depict how fast this newly invented microprocessor is.
Image B: Culture jammed advertisement excluding slavery imagery
The above culture jammed advertisement of the original Intel advertisement, captures the true portrayal and purpose of the Intel company. Unlike its original advertisement which was racially controversial, I decided to solely focus on the benefits this product seeks to promote. I used images of cheetahs to replace the black athletes as this better establishes the intense speed of the Intel core 2 duo processor. This new advertisement refutes any backlash as no human is used as an analogy for speed. Furthermore, this advertisement is devoid of stereotypes and slavery imagery. It better serves all races and the targeted buyers without racing historical topics of slavery rendering it harmless.
The decision to keep the white man standing instead of a black man is the mere fact that he represents and establishes the corporate diversity of the American owned company. It would have veered from the ownership of this company if the white man was replaced by a black man as it would suggest that it is indeed a black owned company.
This jammed advertisement is more effective as it is left vague to the audience and makes way for interpretation. This takes the responsibility of interpretation out of the creator’s hands and leaves to the audience to interpret the advertisement. How the audience interprets the ad is totally left to their discretion.
This improved advertisement targets all kinds of employees establishing the fact that they would be more efficient and fast when working with this new processor.
The cheetah is a perfect representation of employees as its unique structure, strength and acceleration makes it admirable. This analogy of the cheetah and employees highlights the thematic meaning of this advertisement which is “speed”. The cheetahs in the advertisement highlight effectively what this advertisement tries to say in a nutshell just by the glance of the audience making this advertisement more effective than its original that rather retracts the meaning.
Bibliography
Minato, Charlie. “10 Recent Racist Ads That Companies Wish You Would Forget.” Business Insider, Business Insider, 7 June 2012, www.businessinsider.com/the-10-most-racist-ads-of-the-modern-era-2012-6#intel-released-an-ad-they-knew-was-racist-7.